Meredith
31st March 2010, 12:39
This forum has often discussed how despicable it is when mothers put their own daughters on diets. It really is unthinkable - a mother starving her own child. The cruelty behind that is unimaginable. Mothers should be encouraging their daughters to be happy, to eat whatever they like and as much as they like, and helping their daughters develop positive views of their bodies, not stigmatizing them about their natural fullness and giving them a complex about having curves. What kind of mother does such a thing?
Well, I recently came across an article that was published late last year which reveals that a mothers' own diet-starvation, when she deprives herself of food, is just as bad an influence on their daughters as is an attempt to diminish their bodies.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1223641/Mothers-diet-twice-likely-daughters-eating-disorders.html#
The pertinent points:
Mothers who diet are 'twice as likely' to have daughters with eating disorders
By Luke Salkeld
29th October 2009
Mothers who diet are almost twice as likely to have daughters who suffer from an eating disorder, researchers have claimed.
The majority of teenagers in a survey said they felt damaged by the effects of their mother's dieting and views on food and regarded their mothers as the biggest influence on their own self-image.
The survey of girls aged 12 to 18 found that six per cent of them had an eating disorder - a proportion that rose to one in ten among those whose mothers diet.
The poll revealed that almost eight out of 10 girls worry about their weight and one in five said they are criticised by family members for being 'too big'.
Annabel Brog, editor of teen magazine Sugar, which carried out the poll, said girls were heavily influenced by their family's views on diet and food, which she described as their 'thin-heritance'.
Nine per cent of teenage girls said they are 'constantly' on a diet - a figure that almost tripled among girls whose families comment on their weight.
Two-thirds said they had heard their mum complaining about her own weight and 56 per cent have mothers who are on a diet.
This is despite a massive 68 per cent describing their mother's body size as perfectly normal.
Commenting on the results of the survey, psychologist Amanda Hills said: 'Children learn how to behave by watching their parents.
'And a dieting parent will label certain foods as 'bad' or 'wrong', which can lead to an unhealthy approach to food.
'The 'drip-drip' effect of constant self-criticism in front of easily-influenced teens teaches them to do likewise.
'If mum's calling herself f**, it won't be long before her daughter is [calling herself that] too.
The article includes several examples of this situation, including appalling reports of parents who criticize their own daughters about their weight - which is tantamount to child abuse, as the parents in such a case becomes no better than the worst kind of schoolyard bullies.
But this research proves that even if the parents do not directly abuse their daughters about their weight, all it takes is for the mother to be subjecting herself to diet-starvation for the daughter to develop an eating disorder.
It's a damning rebuke of the weight-control industry, which, this research proves, is literally and directly causing eating disorders.
For the sake of their daughters' well-being, mental health, and body image, mothers should avoid any kind of dieting whatsoever, any negative talk about visible fullness, and any criticism of certain types of foods.
Mothers, like their daughters, should eat according to their natural appetites and with complete freedom. If this were to happen, the incidence of eating disorders would be drastically reduced.
Well, I recently came across an article that was published late last year which reveals that a mothers' own diet-starvation, when she deprives herself of food, is just as bad an influence on their daughters as is an attempt to diminish their bodies.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1223641/Mothers-diet-twice-likely-daughters-eating-disorders.html#
The pertinent points:
Mothers who diet are 'twice as likely' to have daughters with eating disorders
By Luke Salkeld
29th October 2009
Mothers who diet are almost twice as likely to have daughters who suffer from an eating disorder, researchers have claimed.
The majority of teenagers in a survey said they felt damaged by the effects of their mother's dieting and views on food and regarded their mothers as the biggest influence on their own self-image.
The survey of girls aged 12 to 18 found that six per cent of them had an eating disorder - a proportion that rose to one in ten among those whose mothers diet.
The poll revealed that almost eight out of 10 girls worry about their weight and one in five said they are criticised by family members for being 'too big'.
Annabel Brog, editor of teen magazine Sugar, which carried out the poll, said girls were heavily influenced by their family's views on diet and food, which she described as their 'thin-heritance'.
Nine per cent of teenage girls said they are 'constantly' on a diet - a figure that almost tripled among girls whose families comment on their weight.
Two-thirds said they had heard their mum complaining about her own weight and 56 per cent have mothers who are on a diet.
This is despite a massive 68 per cent describing their mother's body size as perfectly normal.
Commenting on the results of the survey, psychologist Amanda Hills said: 'Children learn how to behave by watching their parents.
'And a dieting parent will label certain foods as 'bad' or 'wrong', which can lead to an unhealthy approach to food.
'The 'drip-drip' effect of constant self-criticism in front of easily-influenced teens teaches them to do likewise.
'If mum's calling herself f**, it won't be long before her daughter is [calling herself that] too.
The article includes several examples of this situation, including appalling reports of parents who criticize their own daughters about their weight - which is tantamount to child abuse, as the parents in such a case becomes no better than the worst kind of schoolyard bullies.
But this research proves that even if the parents do not directly abuse their daughters about their weight, all it takes is for the mother to be subjecting herself to diet-starvation for the daughter to develop an eating disorder.
It's a damning rebuke of the weight-control industry, which, this research proves, is literally and directly causing eating disorders.
For the sake of their daughters' well-being, mental health, and body image, mothers should avoid any kind of dieting whatsoever, any negative talk about visible fullness, and any criticism of certain types of foods.
Mothers, like their daughters, should eat according to their natural appetites and with complete freedom. If this were to happen, the incidence of eating disorders would be drastically reduced.